# 312 Strengthen for service, Lord
Words: Syriac Liturgy of Malabar
Music: Malabar, David McKinley Williams
St. Ephraim the Syrian
Source: Hymnary.org
About A.D. 307 there was born at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, Ephraem or Ephraim Syrus, the most celebrated father of the Syrian church, and famous not only as a theologian, but also as a poet and hymn-writer. Historians differ as to the details of his life; but it is known that having first been a pupil of James, bishop of Nisibis, he finished his education at Edessa, where for the rest of his days he chiefly resided. He visited Basil at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and by him he was ordained to the office of deacon. He died at Edessa in June, 373. Ephraim was a most voluminous writer of commentaries, expository sermons, hymns, and metrical homilies. Metrical Homilies, first mentioned in connection with him, are a peculiar kind of composition, to which we know of nothing in other literature exactly similar. The tracts in verse explanatory of the Christian religion, circulated by missionaries in some parts of India, and which the people like to read aloud in a kind of chant, seem most nearly to resemble them. The Homilies are in metre, i.e. in lines containing a fixed number of syllables, e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 12, as the case may be, and are divided into strophes, but differ from hymns proper in their greater length and more decidedly didactic character. We might have supposed them to be poems intended to be simply read, but from notes found on manuscripts giving directions as to the singing, it appears as though, at least in some cases, they were actually sung or chanted in connection with religious services.
Malabar region refers to the historic and geographic area of southwest India, covering the districts of Kerala Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. This hymn was not familiar to me. But it is lovely. Here is a wonderful rendition by St. John’s in Detroit. YOUTUBE